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So ... how does this work exactly?

I hate to ask such an elementary question, but I don't understand this.

I read that Arianne is a RPG engine, but the download only offers Stendhal.

I have also read that making changed requires uploading to this project. I got the impression this game engine was a completely enclosed system that would run on my local server. Any changes/additions I wanted to make would be done on my server.

>>I hate to ask such an elementary question, but I don't understand this.

It makes perfect sense to ask someting that is unclear and it contributes to point out what the documentation is lacking

>>I read that Arianne is a RPG engine

Arianne strives to be an engine with a purpose more general than that:
"Arianne is an open source multiplayer online games framework and engine to develop turn based and real time games"
That is, RPG would be just a particular game genre.

Stendhal began as a mini game to test the features of marauroa but has grown with time into a project of its own and has focused development attention so much that currently new features are added to Marauroa as they become required by Stendhal

>>I have also read that making changed requires uploading to this project

The only obligations you are subject to comply with are those stated by the GPL license under which the project's code is released.
This essentially means that you can modify the code as you want but you must release the source code of the client to your users _if_you_decide_to_distribute_the_binaries_to_them_ and you must do it under this same GPL license.

>>I got the impression this game engine was a completely enclosed system that would run on my local server. Any changes/additions I wanted to make would be done on my server.

Due to the fact that you aren't really distributing your server code to your client users but just interacting with them, and given that the code is currently licensed under the GPL and not the AGPL you don't have to distribute the modifications of your server's code to your users.

>>If I run Arianne on my own server ... does it start off with the atlas, the weapons, etc? Then we would modify it from there?
Of course, the game content is released as well as the game logic under the same GPL license and both are released together as a whole when you download the server files.

Umm, I still have to apply the patch.
But I really wanted to listen first that test were working correctly with Hibernate.
I lack of time to work on new bugs introduced by new features that I am really not entusiast about ( I am happy enough with MySQL ).

The changes you made are only on your server and as long as you don't distribute it you can keep them for you. But if you happen to distribute your server or a modified client the GPL ask you to offer these changes in the same terms you recieved stendhal's code.